The owner of a 1968 Volkswagen showed up at the Sixth Precinct station house with a complaint. Her car, parked across the street from the Stonewall Inn, at 53 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, had been “stomped on,” causing damage to the roof, hood and rear engine cover.

The stomping occurred around 3 a.m. on June 28, 1969, at the start of what would later be known as the Stonewall uprising, the six-day series of disturbances that began as a protest by gays against police harassment and became a defining moment in the gay-rights movement.

Seven pages of records were released by the city’s Police Department in response to a Freedom of Information Law request. They were obtained last month by Jonathan Ned Katz, an independent scholar and director of OutHistory.org, with help from David Carter, the author of “Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press, 2004).

Two of the pages posted online were obtained in 1988 by Michael Scherker, a writer who sued the city to obtain some police records from the time of the uprising, and who has since died. None of the nine pages of reports have been published previously, Mr. Katz said.

Despite the later historical significance assigned to the Stonewall rebellion, many of the details associated with the events have have been poorly or incompletely documented, said Mr. Carter, whose book has been cited as an authoritative account of the uprising. (Indeed, photographs taken by The New York Times from the final night of the riots, and not published at the time, have resurfaced only in recent years.)

Mr. Katz highlighted several ways in which the documents cast new light on the Stonewall uprising:

One report cites three people — Raymond Castro, Marilyn Fowler and Vincent DePaul — as having acted together to “shove and kick the officer.” Ms. Fowler and Mr. DePaul had not been previously documented as participants in the riot, and indeed, no woman’s arrest had previously been documented, though several eyewitnesses had long stated that resistance to the police intensified after a lesbian woman, whose identity was not known, was arrested.

A police officer, Charles Holmes, was treated at St. Vincent’s Hospital after being bitten on the right wrist by a rioter. Biting had not been documented as a tactic of the rioters. The documents also cited other rioters, Wolfgang Podolski and Thomas Staton, whose involvement in the disturbances had not been documented before.

One document provides additional detail about the previously known arrest of David Van Ronk, a heterosexual folk singer (who was incorrectly described as an actor) who was accused of assaulting an officer “with an unknown object.” Mr. Van Ronk eventually pleaded guilty to harassment, a violation. He was later sued by the police officer, Gilbert Weisman, for assault, and had to pay a fine.

In an interview, Mr. Carter said of the documents, “There’s potential there for learning a lot more.”

In particular, he cited the naming of Ms. Fowler as significant because some writers had questioned the extent or even existence of women’s involvement at the inception of the uprising.

Mr. Carter also said the documents corroborated information that had been provided to him by Seymour Pine, the police inspector who led the raid on the Stonewall Inn (and later expressed regret about the nature and manner of the way the police conducted themselves.)

“Pine has been vilified by a number of gay writers, but from all my interactions with him I believe his account was truthful and accurate,” Mr. Carter said. “I believe he’s an honorable man, and this is further reason to believe that.”

Little is known about the four people cited in the documents — Vincent DePaul, Marilyn Fowler, Wolfgang Podolski and Thomas Staton — whose involvement was not previously documented. Mr. Katz urged anyone familiar with those individuals to e-mail OutHistory.org.

OutHistory.org has scheduled a fund-raiser, titled ” Stonewall Was a Riot! Queer Riffs on Life Since 1969,” for 7:30 p.m. Monday at the current Stonewall Inn. (The original inn closed soon after the riots, and the new bar, which occupies only part of the original space, has no other connection to the original establishment.) The Stonewall Inn site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2000.

I was back living in my hometown of Bangor, Maine when I heard the news on the local radio station of the “riot” at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village.
Although I was going through an extremely traumatic physicaL, emotional and financial personal experience of my own at the time, I nonetheless said a silent prayer for those who were brave enough to be fighting for freedom.
Forty years later I am happily back in New York City, and I still pray for those who are brave enough to continue the quest for “Equality.”
Thank you, New York Times for bringing this ongoing struggle by so many good people to the attention of your readers.
The day will soon come when everyone will be able to walk in the sunshine that being able to be one’s self provides.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Stonewall Riots, there’s a free sneak preview of an upcoming American Experience film at the New York Public Library this evening at 6:30pm. Producers Kate Davis and David Holbreiner, author David Carter, and a participant in the riots will be present for a Q&A afterward. More info at //www.nypl.org/calendar

Carter’s book is a terrific read for anyone interested in gay history… At the time of the Stonewall uprising I had just turned 19 and was essentially a virgin. A couple of weeks before, friends in Philly took me to NYC for the 1st time and we went to a bar called “The Sewer”. Very sleazy and colorful place – I recall seeing boys walking around in silver jockstraps, etc. One of the most fun and fascinating nights of my life. Too bad we didn’t get to the Stonewall, though very likely we walked by enroute to elsewhere.

I have to wonder about the veracity of the name “Vince DePaul”… doesn’t it sound like a comical twist on the famous
“Society of St. Vincent de Paul” of thrift-shop fame? Perhaps the man in question was having a bit of fun at the arresting officer’s expense.

The article notes that little is known about
“Vincent DePaul” (and several others), but the
Renaissance saint Vincent de Paul is well
documented. Maybe the guy’s name was real
(parents do name their kids after saints) but
maybe it was just given at the time of arrest.
Lots of gay men in those days had enough
experience with the police to conceal their true
identities when possible. Certainly it was rare
at the time to learn more than the first name or
nickhame of someone you met casually in a bar.

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